This copy is for your personal non-commercial use only. To order presentation-ready copies of Toronto Star content for distribution to colleagues, clients or customers, or inquire about permissions/licensing, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com

If you think Octavio Zambrano’s new position at the helm of the Canadian men’s soccer team starts and ends with the country’s 22 or so senior players, think again.

The 59-year-old native of Guayaquil, Ecuador, not only accepted the role of coach when he took on his “most challenging environment yet,” Canadian Soccer Association president Victor Montagliani implored at a press conference introducing Zambrano in Toronto on Friday.

More than that is expected of the well-travelled, one-time attacking midfielder, who has coached or held front office positions with club sides in Colombia, Ecuador, Hungary and Moldova as well as the Los Angeles Galaxy and the MetroStars in the early days of Major League Soccer.

Like John Herdman on the women’s side of the game, Zambrano is marketed as becoming the voice of the men’s program, in charge of every player from the under 14 to top international levels.

“We thought it was important, even before we selected Octavio, to change the structure of the program so that there was uniformity,” Montagliani said.

Article Continued Below

Canada Soccer’s current president — who has about six weeks left in the role before taking over full-time as the president of CONCACAF, the governing body for association soccer in North and Central America as well as the Caribbean — said many development programs in the country show a lack of respect for the system in Canada by outsourcing things like coaching education and long-term player development.

“The problem is that people want to pull off the training sessions from Everton Football Club and would rather do that at their club than (using) the resources that we have here. That, to me, is where we have an amateur environment. It’s absolutely killed us.”

Zambrano — who calls the job “the pinnacle of my career” — believes he has a responsibility to create a soccer identity in the country.

He hopes doing so will eventually help the men’s side reach the game’s highest level — namely contending for the World Cup.

That’s a big jump from the status quo; Canada is currently ranked No. 117 in the world and 14th in CONCACAF.

Zambrano, whose current contract runs through qualifiers for World Cup 2022 in Qatar, believes the base of today’s Canadian squad is a good mix of up-and-comers and experienced player who should still be involved come time to fight for a spot in that tournament.

But he said it’s critical that young Canadian players in the process of discovering the game — those as young as three years old all the way up to age 12 — are taught proper basics.

“This is a time where we must attain totally mastery of the ball. By that I mean we should be able to execute just about any technique and ability that the game requires,” he said.

Tactical alignments should be introduced in the early teen years and can’t be executed without that technical base.

“What we need to do as we’re preparing the senior team, which is obviously the priority, we should be working also on the bottom half of this pyramid, where the grassroots level is,” Zambrano said.

“Making sure that all these concepts of mastery of the ball get taught and get monitored and making sure that the players that are coming from the young ages are prepared, eventually down the line, to execute just about any system, any idea that the coach requires.”

At the senior level, Zambrano is most concerned with keeping a close eye on players to make sure they’re getting quality minutes with their clubs.

He spoke highly of the prospect of a rumoured Canadian-only soccer league, something that has yet to be officially announced by Canada Soccer.

It is of the “utmost importance” that Canada has its own soccer league for player development, Zambrano said.

“There are a lot of players that are peripheral players within their organizations that are currently playing at the highest level in North America and perhaps Europe as well,” he said.

“They are there but they are not playing, they are not getting quality minutes. They are bona fide Canadian players, but they need to play.”

Delivered dailyThe Morning Headlines Newsletter

The Toronto Star and thestar.com, each property of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, One Yonge Street, 4th Floor, Toronto, ON, M5E 1E6. You can unsubscribe at any time. Please contact us or see our privacy policy for more information.

More from the Toronto Star & Partners

LOADING

Copyright owned or licensed by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or distribution of this content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited and/or its licensors. To order copies of Toronto Star articles, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com